“While the church continues to discern God’s will in these matters, it is important to remind ourselves that sacramental theology since the time of Augustine of Hippo has affirmed that the validity of sacraments does not depend on the character of the ordained person celebrating those sacraments.”
The Episcopal Church, at its General Convention in Anaheim, is trying to sort out who can and can’t be a priest or a bishop. If you have a problem with gay people, this might be disturbing to you because the upshot is likely to be that a gay person could be your priest. Or bishop. For those with a strong regard for the sacraments (and perhaps a limited imagination about God) this could be terrifying. It would be like flying on a plane to Rome, only to find out that the airline went bankrupt while you were over Newfoundland.
We all want to be welcomed and we want to be comfortable. Some people feel unwelcome or uncomfortable in the presence of others who are very different. Some people feel uncomfortable or untrue to their call if they do not speak out about what they believe to be right, correct, or just. Reasonable people can differ in the conclusions they reach about what is right, correct, and just.
Other times, however, you’re tits up in a ditch. At that point it is immaterial whether or not one is right. One needs help and, in reaching out, one should not fear for his or her immortal soul. The agent of that help could be wrong, wrong, wrong but the help can still be right. And, according to Augustine, the act is more significant than the actor.
Buckminster Fuller said God is a not a noun but a verb. I think the same is true of Love. (God is Stevie Wonder, after all.) No doubt we need to reflect on our experience of God, but first we need to have that experience, given or received. Having the experience of God with someone we do not believe to be of God might change our view of that person.
A recent airline bankruptcy announcement assured passengers that flights currently in the air will continue to their destination. Augustine gives us the same assurance that its not up to a person to change our destination. That’s already been fixed. Perhaps its time we attempted to be more accomodating of our fellow travellers.